Indian Pavilion or Gobbling our Income

Indian food is really, relatively easy to make. At least according to my neighbor who is from S. Africa by way of Gujarat State. But she has something like 200 different spice powders on a rack from Ikea hanging by her stove. I have six or eight plus some garlic powder I bring in from Italy when I can. I do love Indian food though. This causes me to resort to the Indian Pavilion in the supermarket shopping center.
A medium sized restaurant tupperware container of Tadka Dahl will set you back about 21dhs. or $5.72 This is, in point of fact, a wholly outrageous price for what amounts to mostly lentils and some onions. So I learned to make my own.
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, cook one cup of split red or yellow lentils with one liter of water and two teaspoons turmeric. Add a sprinkling of mustard seeds and methi (fenugreek seeds). In a separate frying pan, sautee one onion, 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, a thumb of ginger and a green chili until the vegetables are soft. Add a tsp. of garam masala, stir well and continue to cook on low until fragrant. Add your cooked vegetables, 1/2 of a veggie stock cube and about 1/2 cup of chopped tomato (canned are ok), to the lentils. If the water has cooked off, add another 1/2 cup. Continue to cook this on low for 10-15 min. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over brown rice.
I added about a cup of finely chopped zucchini just to up the veg content. But this left T. shaking her head in disgust at me... I couldn't really taste much impact from the zucchini.

Lamb Rogan Josh- Indian-style stroganoff.

Its not much to look at, but it is tasty.
On the heels of yesterday's total washout of a supper (I hit a personal nadir with scrambled eggs and toast...) I decided I needed to redeem myself and make something delicious which everyone would/ could eat... Yeah, right.
Instead, I had some nice lamb shoulder cubes and decided to make Lamb Rogan Josh. If you Google this dish, the cut of the lamb varies wildly from a bone in shank to the shoulder cubes but I think I quite like it as a stew rather than trying to deal with it as a roast with the bone-in.
one white onion
two cloves garlic
1 thumb of ginger (suddenly American ginger is unavailable here. we have only the Chinese kind and I'm leery of eating stuff from China... so I substituted 1 generous tsp. of powdered).
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. indian chili powder ( I skipped this because of the kids...)
1 lb lamb shoulder cubes
1 16oz can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup full-fat plain yogurt (low fat is possible, just not as good)
cilantro
salt and pepper to taste.

Put your onions in a heavy saucepan with about 1tbsp neutral oil and cook them until browning. Add your meat and spices. If I get meat from the supermarket the same day as I'm cooking it, I put it into a dish with the spices ahead of time, if not, just add the meat and spices to the onions and cook until meat is beginning to brown on the outside. Add the tomatoes and cover. Cook for about 45-50 min on low until meat is very tender. About 10 minutes before serving, blend in the yogurt, avoid boiling it or it will break and you wont get the creaminess you want. Stir in cilantro, salt and pepper to taste just before serving.
Serve over basmati rice with a side of steamed veg. Mostly accepted by the children. Only baby Chuck actually liked it.

Sri Lankan Spaghetti

My feelings about spaghetti are well known to my readers (you three...) But we are fortunate enough to share our home with a small Sri Lankan superhero who is faster than a speeding toddler, more powerful than a door-to-door rug salesman and able to navigate bur Dubai in a single bound! And she makes spaghetti. The Sri Lankan version.

She does not like sharing her recipes with me, she just laughs at the depths of my ignorance on vegetables, spices, masala etc. etc. She shakes her head wondering how it can be possible that I write this website on food, when I do not even know how to properly gut a fish. She's right, of course, but by careful observation I can tell you how to make the spaghetti...

4 red indian onions (price of onions going up every day!)
4 large carrots grated
2 sri lankan green chili peppers (they are short and pointy - thai pepper ok here too...)
2 tomato
1 clove garlic
1 thumb of ginger (Sri Lankan food doesn't really use ginger but she has lived in the non-melting pot a long time and likes to use "ingredient from other people food"...)
1 pinch of indian chili flakes
a bit of asafoetida and some fenugrek seeds
2 or 3 tsp. turmeric
2 eggs
1 lb of spaghetti

Cut up and in about 1-2 tbsp. safflower or other neutral oil fry fry fry (she always says this) your onions, garlic, tomato, chili pepper, and ginger until onions are around 1/3 the volume you started with. Ok if onions get a little brown, if you are worried about the garlic burning, you can add it at the end.
In a large bowl toss the carrots, turmeric, asafoetida and fenugreek (you could skip these and use some shaved fennel with your carrots if you cant find them). Scramble and fry up your eggs. When cool, mix these, and the onion mixture with the carrot mixture.
When the spaghetti is cooked, toss it all together. Now you can eat it like this (cut coriander & green onion over it to serve) or you can refrigerate it for a day (making it good party food...).
On day two, place the spaghetti in a frying pan. Top it with some fresh coriander and green onions and any leftover vegetables you have around. Tonight we had broccoli, string beans and a bit of yellow pepper. Cook the pasta covered in the pan until the veggies wilt a bit and you hear it crackle, be patient. The idea is to let it get a little brown and crispy on the bottom.
Voila! acceptable spaghetti.

Veggie Stir Frys

I'm trying to be a vegan. I'm not terribly good at it. I don't have a big deal moral reason for it, just some gross, aging-related health problems I wont bore you with the oogy details, but they do seem to be radically improved by the avoidance of meat, milk, caffeine, alcohol, anything good, really...
So today I made two different vegetable stir fries for dinner. Both were really delicious, I have to admit.
Just use the basic formula and you could come up with all kinds of yummy things.

Enough for a side dish for four or for two vegans... This would be absolutely excellent with the addition of some thinly sliced pork chop.
Saute 1 sliced onion in 1 tbsp safflower oil. Add 1 thinly sliced clove of garlic, and 1 or 2 asian green chilies also sliced thinly. When the onions begin to brown, add 1 whole savoy cabbage sliced very thinly and one matchstick-ed carrot. Stir fry until cabbage begins to brown.
Add 1 tbsp. soy sauce and 2 tsp. sesame oil and cover for a few minutes until steam begins to collect on the lid (3 or 4 min). Toss and serve.

Variations to try:
Broccoli and sweet yellow pepper
Cauliflower and tomato
bean medly (green, sugar snaps, snow peas)

Chana masala and the problem with fancy supermarkets

Lately I've come around to shopping at the Union Co-op rather than Spinney's or Carrefour. I admit it is pathetic that it has taken me this long, but I was kind of intimidated by the Co-op. Depending on who you talk to, membership in the co-op may or may not be available to non-Emiratis. Nobody at the co-op is going out of their way to help you, except the smiling Indian guy who is whamming cans of beans onto your loaves of bread. And all the 'yes-madam'-ing at your fancier ex-pat markets can be kinda seductive.
BUT, and it's a big but, I've come to the conclusion that Union is FAR FAR superior in the freshness and quality of what they are selling AND they clock in about an average of 30% cheaper! What's not to love? For a 30% lower grocery bill and better food, I'll accept some sneering.
Chana masala spices were the clincher for me. I picked some up at Spinneys. I didn't examine the box very carefully. If I had, I would have found that it had been opened and re-glued and was literally crawling with several types of bugs! YUMMY!
Union co-op seems to be moving enough of this kind of stuff that nothing has bugs in it and I get the sense that there would be hell to pay if a supermarket was trying to sell such garbage to local grandma's.
Chana masala is a cooked chickpea dish that I tried a few months ago at an Iftar buffet. Here's my super simple version, quite tasty.

In a medium saucepan cook together 1 tbsp corn oil, 2 small red onions, 2 small tomatoes, 1 clove garlic, 1 thumb of ginger, 1 green chili. Cover and cook on low until reduced to about 1/3 of the volume. Add 1 can of well-drained chickpeas, about 1/4 tsp (to start) indian red chili and chana masala spice, plus salt and pepper. Stir to coat and add 1/4 cup light coconut milk. Cook on low until warmed through and chick peas are beginning to lose their shells. Top with fresh coriander.
Serve over rice or with chapati.

Peanut soba noodles.

Everyone's making peanut soba noodles everywhere in the food-blog-o-sphere.

101 Cookbooks - Lazy Day Peanut Noodle Salad
Food.com - Cold Peanut Soba Noodles
Post Punk Kitchen - Ginger Peanut Soba Noodles

These are just a few of my favorites.

Here's my contribution to the question:

1 package buckwheat soba
1/3 cup Jif or other creamy peanut butter (I like the balance of sweet and salty in Jif)
1/4 cup lower-sodium tamari soy sauce.
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 generous splash of Frank's hot sauce
1 clove garlic
1 thumb ginger
about 8oz well drained, firm tofu (this I had marinated in lemon juice ginger and garlic, but plain tofu will do fine here).
green onions
asparagus
green beans or snowpeas or sugar snap peas or edamame
1/2 cup roasted salted (or unsalted) peanuts

Cook the soba according to package directions. When I drain them, I usually pour the boiling water over the beans & peas to save cooking them separately.
In a bowl, combine peanut butter, tamari, rice wine vinegar, hot sauce and the garlic and ginger (either very finely chopped or pressed). Add noodles, mix well.
Let the vegetables sit in the water until bright green and a bit tender. Drain, add to noodle mixture. Top with green onions and the peanuts.
This is a dish with infinite possibility of course. Pretty much any vegetable is going to work here. Try red pepper and broccoli, shiitaki mushroom and fresh peas etc. etc.

Chicken Biryani

Chicken biryani, it's what you have, Indian, Sri Lankan, or Local Arab, when you are having a bunch of folks over.
I've made it only once myself, but I've tried my fair share. I think the key is to make sure you have enough of the sauce so that the rice is not dry, but also to be careful about oil so it isn't greasy either. Here's something akin to the process, step by step... It should serve about 4, although it's a lot of work no matter how many people, so go for a big dinner party.

Take a chicken, cut it up.
Wash it well in warm water and a bit of salt.
Dredge your chicken lightly in flour, some turmeric, black pepper, a bit of curry powder or what have you, and fry just until its crispy on the outside, in oil or ghee. Chicken does not have to be fully cooked at this point, because it will get cooked again. Set chicken pieces aside.

In a different pan cook together, 1/4 cup vegetable oil. 5 small onions, 5 green chilis, 5 red chilis, 2 tomatoes, 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. Now here is where it gets tricky and personal. Everyone seems to have different ideas about what spices go into the biryani. I'd go with ginger, cumin, cardamom and cloves. But some people also use cinnamon, caraway seeds, and bay leaves too. When you have a nice thick spicy onion mixture, add the chicken and cover on low heat until it is cooked through. Finish with a generous amount of fresh coriander and serve over basmati rice. More authentic Biryani calls for par-cooking the rice and letting it finish in the sauce mixture, but I cant taste the difference, perhaps because it is quite spicy.

Spring rolls

I forgot about spring rolls. I haven't eaten them in ages, don't really know why.

So I made them last night for dinner.

Boil water, pour over bean threads, drain when soft.
Dip the wrappers (they are called Bahn Trang) in warm water.
Place some cilantro and or lemon basil leaves on the wrapper
In the middle, place a pinch of noodles (perhaps 1/8 of a cup).
Top noodles with cucumber sticks, green onions, string beans and or snap peas.
You can add leftover meat or nuts for protein.

Fold wrapper over filling, then fold in the two sides and roll up the wrapper. If you can stop yourself from eating them long enough to make a plateful, take a paper towel and dampen it with a bit of water. Wring it out well and use it to cover the rolls while they are resting on the plate.

For the peanut sauce:
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tsp. either Sriracha or Frank's hot sauce

Spoon into the rolls. Enjoy...

Home Sushi

I'm getting kind of good a making sushi lately. Its because the boys are mad for it, its been really humid so the no-cook meals are popular with me, and I feel a lot of economic pressure to make my own... Its just so horribly expensive to take them all out for it, they love it so and will just keep ordering.

It kind of hangs on the rice. I've been using basic Japanese sticky rice for sushi lately, but I usually use short grain brown rice. To one cup of rice you need to add 1/2 tsp of sugar and a splash of rice-wine vinegar. I sometimes add a shake or two of seaweed powder (the package is in Japanese, I have no idea what it is...)

Mr. Muffin Puff cake gets a mix of vegetables in his, avocado, blanched green beans, peppers, pea shoots (if I can find them), and cucumber with sesame seeds.
Mr. Dumpling likes fish and rice only. I usually buy a 4oz tuna steak and a 4oz salmon steak, slice these very carefully and roll them in the rice with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.
I like mixed and usually make a salmon avocado and a tuna cucumber roll for myself.
Baby Chuck is anti-sushi, he eats mac & cheese or a penut butter and jelly if we are having sushi and loudly complains about how gross he thinks it is.

Just when you thought it was safe...

Right about the time that diapers become a distant memory and they stop catching absolutely every illness known to man and you start to relax a little, guess what? They get their big teeth. Like absolutely everything in America today, this is fraught with opportunities for hand wringing and medical interventions...

And presents certain culinary challenges.

Poor Mr. Muffin Puff cake couldn't really eat anything for about a week because he had a wiggly lower front tooth. I am lucky because he adores poached eggs and smoothies. Here's a recipe for yummy noodles that go down easy on the toothless....

1 pkg. Udon noodles- cooked to taste
Chop the following very very finely
1 head napa cabbage
1 shallot
1 thumb of fresh ginger
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup green beans
2 green onions
saute with 1 tbsp vegetable oil until soft, season with pepper
Grill an 8 oz piece of salmon on the bbq brush with lemon and soy sauce.
In your serving bowl add:
1/4 cup soy sauce (room temp)
2 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp sesame oil
a splash of rice wine vinegar or lemon
add the sauteed vegetables and the salmon, use a fork to break the salmon into small bits
add noodles, toss and serve.

Enjoyed by toothy and toothless alike.

Ramen

I've become sort of obsessed with the junk food of my childhood lately. Small wonder, given the events of the last six months, but its got me making all kinds of things I havent eaten in years. Like Ramen noodles. Ramen and broccoli kept me alive for the better part of 1992. Most people go through a phase in college where ALL they have to eat is ramen so by the time they are able to earn a reasonable salary, ramen is off the menu. Which has certainly been true for us.

With the boys back in school and us generally really busy, it just dawned on me to make ramen noodles for dinner the other day. I had a left over porkchop which I sliced super thinly, some carrot shreds, a bit of cilantro, plus some green beans, green onions and leftover asparagus. Evidently a really salty bowl of noodles is a good way to get vegetables into children without too much complaining.

The only alteration to the ramen itself was that I made four packages but used only two of the flavor packs. They tend to be REALLY salty. Also, beware they can be pretty fatty, some of them are fried before drying. I like Koyo for an organic and not so fatty version. I 'get it' why my mom, an inveterate health food person in the '70s would occasionally make this for us. Its fast, easy, good, and reasonably healthy when fortified by veggies and meat.

Udon

My new favorite, easy to sell to the munchkins supper, is Udon noodles. I've been taking chicken soup or vegetable stock and adding the noodles, some sauteed beef or chicken, carrots, green sweet peas, and a little green onion.

It seems to satisfy the little picky-pickies and is reasonably healthy too. That makes one meal!

Romantic Dinner 2 (vegetarian)

My readers, all three of you, know I love Thai curries so Romantic Dinner possibility 2 starts with a Thai Yellow Curry

garlic and shallot (cook 'em well so no interference with romance...)

some yellow curry sauce (yes, if I was a real cook, i'd make my own...)

a handful of string beans

a cut up red pepper (you could get really cute and cut them in hearts)

a chopped zucchini

some cauliflower

cubed firm tofu

served over brown basmati rice

Are you feeling the spicy healthyness?? Good, because then you can blow it all with a really decadent raspberry mango mousse cake which I will tell you how to make tomorrow.

Green Green Curry

I'm tinkering around with curries again. I am the only person in my house who likes green curry, so I get to make it on days like today... The boys are still so jet lagged and were crying and falling asleep by 5pm. I quickly made bowls of noodle soup for them (stock, chinese egg noodles, spices and vegetables...)and put them to bed with the promise that tomorrow will be happier.

I've got lots of food handy- husband shanghaied a Flight Attendant into helping him grocery shop prior to our arrival. Thank you, dear... So I've made some brown rice and am throwing together a green green curry.
For vegetables I'm using stringbeans, some leftover broccoli, green pepper, frozen broad beans, onion, and garlic. I'm adding firm tofu to the vegetables.

I usually cook these with a bit of olive oil, then the onions and garlic with a generous helping of green curry paste. I'm loving the brand that's linked here. Then I'll add the tofu and cook it until its beginning to brown, then the veg and I'll cover that and let it cook for about 10 min until all the veg are getting a bit bright and soft.

Once it seems ready, I'll add about 1/2 cup of coconut milk and eat it over rice. I could eat this every night!

Thai curries.

I love all kinds of thai curries but especially yellow and green. I think they are about the most perfect use for leftover vegetables, meat, fish, tofu etc. especially in a pinch.

Tonight, my neighbor invited us to dinner. I was greatful because my fridge is empty, my husband is out of town and I so did not want to go out. She made a beautiful bolognese sauce with shells for the kids.

Unfortunately and embarassingly, my children made a stink. She used carrots! Oh the humanity!!! And heaven forbid we just keep our mouths closed and eat what is put in front of us graciously.

Since we live in the same building, I felt like the only decent thing to do was bring my complaining little beasts home which then left me with the problem of what to feed them. Eggs came to my rescue, but what to feed myself?

This is where the curry comes in. After dinner and baths I put them into bed and poured myself a good large glass of a crisp Orvieto. Into a small saute pan went, one shallot, one large tablespoon thai yellow curry, some extra-firm tofu, leftover green peas, and some mixed frozen vegetables that wentover like the proverbial lead balloon with the egg supper. When the whole thing was cooked through, I added about 1/4 cup of coconut milk and poured it over some brown rice which I keep in single servings frozen for occasions just like this. Very delicious, very soothing of my angry embarassed mom self.

Mixed meat for dumplings, pasta, etc.

Tonight Mr. Dumpling wanted me to make his favorite food. The dumpling filling was:

1 lb ground buffalo

1 pkg frozen chopped spinach

2 cloves garlic

about 1 tbsp chopped ginger

green onions

some cilantro

some soy sauce

an egg

a little black pepper

Mr. Dumpling has now decided that I should leave dumpling making 'to the professional, Chinese, dumpling makers" It is really not that long ago that this little sweet boy said my dumplings were "the greatest thing I have ever eaten, ever" and now I have a surly teenager in a six-year-olds body. Sigh...

The remaining dumpling mix I cooked in a frying pan with an extra egg to bind it. It would be good tossed with flat noodles or even rolled in a tortilla.

Sushi at home.

Sushi is one of those foods that one doesn't generally try for at home. Going out to sushi, especially to the place with the floating boat that travels around the room to deliver you your sushi, is an excellent experience. Also, I have not mastered seaweed salad; one of my major motivations for going out to sushi in the first place. Still, due to current domestic situation, I'm not going anywhere...



For the rice- 1 cup rice, 2cups water, splash of rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp sugar. Cook it.

This evening, I made a few different ones- all with smoked salmon because the boys like it.

1. yellow pepper and string beans with salmon

2. avocado and salmon

3. cucumber, cream cheese and salmon

4. for my vegetarian mr. Muffin Puffcake, yellow pepper, string beans, avocado and cucumber.



In order to take this picture, I had to pry the plate from one of their little hands. Five rolls of about 6 pieces each is nowhere near enough for three hungry little boys and their momma. I had to serve them whole wheat tortillas to fill their bellies...

Purchased a digital camera so now I dont have to scrounge images off the net. Cool...

Home-made Chinese

So my oldest child had a bit of an allergic reaction to restaurant Chinese food. Kind of spooky because he hasnt had anything like this before and there's absolutely no way to get the total ingredient list of what he ate. He was ok, said his throat was 'spicy' and he 'felt puffy'. I know you're supposed to get an epipen and have the kid scratch tested for everything on earth, but benadryl seemed to stop it and I really dont want to get on the allergic-child treadmill.

Rather than get too excited about this, I'm just going to be keeping away from restaurants for a while, considering my recent restaurant past, I think this is a darn good idea anyway. And I'll go toe-to-toe nutrition-wise with any Chinese place on the planet ...

Chicken skewers

marinate chicken tenders in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame seeds, ground ginger and some garlic

Thread onto skewers

Grill. Serve with penut sauce (penut butter + sriracha + green onion + oil to smooth out...) or yogurt mixed with green onion and ginger...

Dumplings

1 bag birds-eye frozen oriental style vegetables (defrosted, squeezed dry & pulsed in a food processor) mix in 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 egg, some ginger and garlic and about 1/2 lb firm tofu (very dry)

follow dumpling wrapper instructions for folding pasta around filling

boil

eat with soy, rice wine vinegar, red chili, and green onion sauce

Add some broccoli and maybe a tat-soi salad and you're good to go.

Parental food rebellion.

THAT's IT!!! We've had it with 'child-friendly' food. Broiled meat, steamed vegetables, rice or pasta- NO MORE! It is a full fledged rebellion on the part of those of us who pay for all this food in the first place.

Our Manifesto:

We are having- Thai flat bean noodles with penut sauce and CILANTRO! and ONIONS! and COOKED red pepper. Sesame-encrusted chicken. Long beans (we dont care if you have never seem them before- eat them anyway) with sesame oil and ginger.

Notice for our comrades- the rebellion was a total success. Perhaps because they could sense our determination beforehand.

It is worth remembering that most of the time, a hungry child will eat what you put in front of him.

Dumplings for my dumpling

My eldest son loves all dumplings and dumpling type foods. He especially likes it when I make my own version of potstickers which I learned from a college roomate. He's never enjoyed vegetarian ones, however- until these.

1 package wonton wrappers

1lb package of seasoned tofu (Nasoya 'chinese' seasoning)- well drained

1 egg

1 carrot, shredded

1 green onion (greens and whites)

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp sesame seeds

about 6 or 8 snow peas chopped finely

1 clove garlic chopped

1 tsp fresh ginger chopped

1/4 package frozen chopped spinach also well drained

Place in boiling water for about 4 min.

Serve with a splash of soy sauce or in chicken broth.

Its important that the tofu & spinach are really well drained. Cant emphasize this enough. Mix everything but wrappers in a bowl. Put about 1 tsp of filling into the center of each wonton wrapper and fold, use egg to seal. Most packages have a diagram of how to fold them. Personally, I am too culturally hidebound and can only make mine look like tortellini, but they taste great anyway.